Former Inmate On Death Row Awarded $525,000 For Wrongful Conviction

A former inmate on death row who spent 19 years behind bars for a crime he did not commit has been awarded an additional $525,000 for his troubles.

Leroy Orange was behind bars for the murder of four people including his girlfriend and her son, a crime he says he falsely admitted to doing after being shocked, beaten and tortured by former Chicago Police Commander John Burge for a confession.

He was released in 2003 after Governor George Ryan deemed the city’s death penalty “broken”, setting the wrongfully convicted man free.

He will receive the additional $525,000 on top of the $5.5million that will be awarded to him in five installments until 2014.

As previously reported, two other Chicago men were freed in July after being tortured into false confessions by John Burge.

Ronald Kitchen and Marvin Reeves were set free after Kitchen was sentenced to death and Reeves, five life terms for the deaths of five people.

Burge is set to stand trial for torturing at least 200 suspects from 1972 to 1991.